Thursday, 5 November 2015

It’s been over a year since we reopened Vestiti at our new location and I couldn’t be happier with our progress.

I had hopes that we would at least retain all of our regular customers but we’ve done that, as well as gained some new ones.

I keep saying “we” but really, I should say “I”. I’ve been doing it all on my own until now.

I’ve just hired someone new though - Carly - so hopefully, having her around will make things a lot easier on me.

After she learns how to use the cash register anyway. Lucky our customers are mostly quite patient.

Dad initially tried to save me some money by offering to take up Carly’s position himself.

I had to gently turn him down. He’s 88 and honestly, his mind is not what it used to be.

I’m not even confident he could stay awake for an eight hour day. Even just pottering around at home, he’s often ready for bed before dinner time.

And that’s with a nap after lunch too.

I don’t think he’s ever been quite the same since Mum’s death but he does still find joy in things in life. He was very happy about my nephew Connor’s engagement.

Dad has always adored kids though, so having a couple of new little ones around is what makes him most happy.

He loved introducing Elisa to our dog Diesel, thought she was a bit apprehensive at first.

But they were bonding in almost no time at all. It was sweet to see.

Dad’s been seeing more of Tim this year too, because Tim works part time at Owen’s law firm while he’s studying and comes home with him sometimes.

Despite not liking going to the doctor himself, Dad has been so proud of Tim entering into medical school. He loves hearing about it.

But still, I worry about Dad. We’ll often be talking over breakfast and Dad is suddenly a million miles away.

He also tends to push himself too hard. He can’t just take a brisk walk or a swim - he has to go for a run.

He could handle it once upon a time but I don’t think he can any more.

I suggested he see a doctor for a check-up and he said he wasn’t sick and didn’t need a doctor to tell him so. He’s always been so stubborn.

Maybe I should have but in spite of my worries, I never expected to come home to Dad collapsed on the floor.

Of course, I called for an ambulance to take him to the hospital but it was too late. He was already gone.

When Owen came home, I could hardly get out the words to tell him what had happened.

Even Diesel is upset. He seems to instinctively know Dad is gone.

Before Dad’s death, we had planned to hold a first birthday party for Elisa here at home. Owen and I really had to think about whether we wanted to go ahead with it.

In the end, we decided we would go ahead with it. We knew that Dad would have loved it and would not have wanted Elisa to miss out on anything on account of him. We invited the entire family, including Amar’s side, seeing there aren’t many of them anyway.

Amar just has the one brother, along with his wife and son. We rarely see them but they’re nice people.

Zane and Chloe's son Cole is Elisa's cousin and she just adores him. It made everyone laugh.

It was actually very comforting to have everyone around us at a time like this. It made it all seem a bit more bearable.

I don’t really see my brothers as often as I should either. Dad would have been happy to see us catching up. We've promised to try to do it more often.

Of the kids, Beau was the only one old enough to notice that his great-grandpa wasn’t around.

Adrienne explained it to him but I think he’s still too young to really understand.

At least Beau will have memories of Dad to look back on though. I feel sad that Elisa and Mason won’t have the same.

Dad adored them all so much. I wish he could have lived a little longer to see them grow up.

Augustin Novak (1955-2043)

Augustin Novak suffered a heart attack at home this week and passed away, aged 88.

Augustin was born in Sullivan, to Lukas and Raffaella Novak, in 1955.

He was an only child until the age of 9, when little sister Magdalena came along.

Augustin and his future wife Hanna started dating in high school.

They both went on to study Philosophy at Suffolk University, where they also shared a house.

University was when they became parents for the first time as well, with the birth of twins James and Naomi.

A few years later, Hanna and Augustin married at Augustin's parents' home in Sullivan.

Six years later, youngest son Eliot joined the family.

As well as majoring in the same area at university, Augustin and Hanna both enjoyed very long and distinguished careers in education, with Augustin even becoming the first principal of Sullivan Primary School.

RIP Augustin! Despite the fact I always kind of dread playing this family (like I do with all my elder-only households), I really didn't want to kill him off. Especially when he rolled the want to fall in love again right before and I noticed he had 3 bolts with both Kit Royce and Araminta Romilly. That could have been interesting.

But he's gone now and it's just Owen and Naomi at home now. That's another member of Generation 2 down. I have Generation 5 sims who are old enough to have their own babies now so it's kind of strange I still had any around at all! The last remaining Generation 2 sim (not including sims who are the children of two former townies) is Magdalena, who I always kind of forget is Augustin's sister.

The obituary includes a lot of the same pics from Hanna's obituary. Sorry! My older pics are still not tagged, so they are incredibly difficult to sift through. I have to get back to that chore one day.

14 comments:

That was a touching read, and very poignant for me - 6 years ago today, I came home from work and found my husband dead on the floor in our living room, very much like Naomi finds her Dad...Also, a lot of what you describe about him while he is still alive is very similar to what my Dad is like these days - always sleepy, sometimes miles away when several of us are together talking, but stubborn and not wanting to see a doctor. He's not 88 yet, though, only 73, and so I hope he'll be around for years to come!

Goodness, I'm so sorry to hear about that! What an awful shock that must have been for you. :(

Yes, Augustin was very much like a lot of elderly relatives I've had over the years. I think most people start to go a bit that way, assuming they're fortunate enough to live that long. The stubbornness is particularly frustrating for the family! But I do hope your dad has many more years with you too.

sorry for your loss Librarian, sometimes things do happen in rl that mirrors the sims. My dad died the same way, i didn't find him but he was only 63. Back to the update lovely memories of Augustin and his family.

Carla, the old pics were so cool to see-- I don't have nearly as many as you but already its a chore going through them for obituaries. I also have plans to figure out how to organize them better. You have such a history in your 'hood, and aren't you on the second incarnation of Sullivan? so it is really cool to see the pictures from your original 'hood, and when you were playing Generation 1 & 2.

A lot of people live into their 80's though, like my mother-in-law was 86 and had 9 grandchildren and 15 greats when she died.

RIP Augustin, I began to fear this was the post he would die in. He had a great life, being the first principal of the school, having Hanna, and leaving such a great legacy. That family picture at the end must have taken a lot of patience to pose & capture.

If you're on Windows 7 or above, I really recommending tagging your pics with the sims' names. It's a chore but for the rounds I've done, it's worth it. Yes, this is the second incarnation of Sullivan, which I think I started in 2012.

My dad's side of the family is quite long-living- Most of my grandmother's siblings lived to their 90s. She's the only one left (she was the second-youngest) and she's 88 or 89 and still in fairly good health. Her mobility is limited though, so she went into a home earlier this year, where she's quite happy. :)

I think at least a few people were expecting Augustin to go soon. He was very old, after all. I'd forgotten he was the first principal of the school until it popped into my head right before I typed that part. I feel like going back and looking at all my old school pics now. And yeah, the picture at the end was a pain in the bum. ;) Very old though - none of the great-grandkids were even born yet, though Maia is pregnant with Willow. I'm doing updated versions of my big family portraits right now, so I obviously think the result is worth the effort.

Librarian, I am so sorry for your loss. It was traumatic to read in the form of sims, and would be just a horrible nightmare in reality. :(

I'm sad to see Augustin move on, I wondered when you posted photos if it would be his time soon. I have a feeling Lake is on an upcoming list too. I did not recall Magdalena was his sister until you mentioned it. I really like that he got to meet so many generations, even if they won't remember him. I like seeing your old photos, it will be a long while before I have so many for my elder sims, mostly kids like Bea and her generation. Linnea was born when I started the blog, so she has some too, Lewis as well. So a long time!!! They won't be elders for real life years.

Interesting to see your generations in that type of number, made me think about my current elders, they are mostly generation 2, McCarthy and Traver brood are the only ones that have made it to generation 5. Man I love generations.

Well, I don't want to give too much away but Lake has a little while to go. :) When he does go, he'll be my longest living sim, though I have others who will die after him who will live even longer.

Yeah, I love having great-grandkids able to meet their great-grandparents. I'd like it even more if the game recognised them as family! I've always taken a lot of pics, even when I wasn't sharing them anywhere, so it wasn't too hard t get into the habit for the blog. I have tons of pics of everybody. Except a good toddler pic of Calvin, for some reason!

You're doing all right with the generations, considering I was playing at such a quick pace when I started this thing. I'm patiently awaiting my first Generation 6 babies. I'm guessing the first will come from Declan and Jessica or Justin and Louisa - those couples are likely to stay together. :)

Oh no. (And my sympathies to your readers too for their losses!) I just had such a bad feeling to even see that he was 88 years old. And like Maisie, I was thinking of Lake too, so I'm glad to see you hinting that he has some time left!

But what a good long life Augustin had, and a beautiful family he left behind. I loved seeing the pictures from his early years in his memorial.

I've never had a sim live this long before, so I'm not really surprised people were expecting him to go soon. It was inevitable, I guess. But yes, without revealing too much about when Lake will go, he'll beat Augustin's record. ;)

Augustin managed to just about everything he set out to do in life, so I think it was a life well-lived. :)

Oh how I miss open for business! Really loved that expansion and at least I know I can get a fix from reading about it on your blog. ;)

So sad about Augustin! Gah, I'm so terrible with my sims dying or I should say lack of sims dying. lol Though that will change now since I've given myself less control over my sims. It was a really nice touch to see the different things he did in his life too. :)

I always forget how much I enjoy Open for Business until I play my businesses again. And the fact that Naomi doesn't need to craft anything for this one - just restock and repeat - makes it really low stress.

Yeah, RIP Augustin. :( I did sort of put off playing this family, because I didn't want to kill him off. If he wasn't so old, who knows how long it would have taken me to get to it, lol! I'm glad he lived such a long life.